I'll admit as a web dev I sometimes take some of the "omg JavaScript" a little personally. Some of the usual pile on articles (granted their complaints aren't technically 'wrong') sometimes imply the browser is a bad place for a lot of things that are happening there privacy wise and etc.
I always wonder ... "Uh, do you want platform specific desktop apps? You're not much better protected there man... and app availability becomes limited / a pain."